Fritz and Cobolli Shocked at US Open as Seeds Fall
Taylor Fritz walked off Arthur Ashe Stadium staring at the court as if it had betrayed him. Two sets up, a break ahead in the third, the American looked to be strolling into the second week of his home Slam. Minutes later, the match had turned. Hours later, the men’s draw at the US Open looked almost unrecognisable.
Francisco Cerundolo, world number 22 and unfazed by the partisan New York crowd, clawed his way back from the brink to stun the ninth seed 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 and reach the fourth round. Fritz had the match in a headlock. Cerundolo ripped himself free.
“I don’t even know what to say,” Fritz admitted afterwards, his voice flat. “I don’t really want to talk to anybody, see anybody. I need to get out for a couple days and then get back to work. I don’t know how I let that happen today.”
He will replay it in his head for a long time. A finalist at Flushing Meadows in 2024, with the path clearing in front of him, Fritz had the stage and the storyline. No Jannik Sinner in the field. Carlos Alcaraz only just back from a wrist injury. A generation of American men sensing a rare opening, 23 years after Andy Roddick’s title run. He was bidding to become the fifth home player into the last 16.
Instead, he joins the exodus.
Cerundolo, who refused to go away even as Fritz dictated early, tightened his game, found more depth, and forced the American to hit one extra ball, then another, then one too many. The pressure told. The third set went to the Argentine. The crowd’s anxiety grew. By the time the match reached a deciding set, it was Fritz who looked like the outsider.
Cerundolo finished the job with conviction, not chaos. No fluke, no net cords, just a top-10 seed dragged into deep water and drowned there.
Cobolli collapses, Blockx pounces
Less than an hour after Fritz’s collapse, another supposed contender followed him out.
Flavio Cobolli, the fifth seed and one of the breakout stories of the season, edged the first set against Alexander Blockx on a tie-break and appeared to have settled. Instead, his match unraveled with startling speed. Blockx, the 28th seed from Belgium, surged to a 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 0-6 3-6 victory, turning what looked like a tight contest into a rout.
The third set told its own story. Cobolli lost it to love in just 20 minutes, his energy drained, his body language sagging. From there, he never truly recovered.
“I think my energy was a little bit lower than the other days,” he said. “I feel a little bit more tight and maybe more tired.”
He did not search for excuses, though. Cobolli accepted that Blockx had seized the moment better.
“Alex is very good guy outside the court. He deserved to win, and he won,” the Italian added, even promising to support his conqueror in the next round.
Blockx will now face Cerundolo for a place in the quarter-finals. Two men outside the usual headline bracket, suddenly staring at a life-changing opportunity.
Djokovic’s early exit lights the fuse
The chaos at the top of the draw did not begin with Fritz or Cobolli. It started with a thunderclap on day one.
Novak Djokovic, chasing a record 25th Grand Slam title, walked into Flushing Meadows as the fourth seed and the man many still expected to beat. He walked out in tears, beaten in five sets by Argentina’s Mariano Navone, the world number 49. It was the first major shock of the tournament, and it ripped a hole straight through the top half.
From there, the seeds kept falling.
Arthur Fils, the 10th seed and one of France’s brightest hopes, went out in the first round to former world number three Stefanos Tsitsipas, who needed four sets to send him home. Felix Auger-Aliassime, the third seed and highest-ranked casualty so far, fell in round two to Karen Khachanov. At the same stage, sixth seed Alex de Minaur also departed.
Those exits seemed to clear the runway for Fritz and Cobolli. No Djokovic. No Sinner. No Auger-Aliassime. No de Minaur. A half of the draw that once looked stacked now looked inviting.
Both men tripped over the welcome mat.
Zverev’s golden route
The consequence of all this carnage is stark. Apart from top seed Alexander Zverev, only two top-20 players remain in the top half of the men’s draw: 14th seed Learner Tien and 17th seed Jakub Mensik. They face each other on Friday, which means only one will still be standing by the weekend.
The numbers are brutal. Zverev could, in theory, reach the final without facing a single top-10 opponent. He will not have to meet anyone ranked inside the top 20 before the semi-finals. For a player still chasing his first major, it is as generous a route as he could have imagined.
Of course, Grand Slams rarely follow the script that rankings suggest. Cerundolo, Blockx, Navone – they are the proof. But the opportunity is there, glaring, for Zverev and for every outsider still alive in this half.
Doubles joy and heartbreak for the Brits
While the singles draw tore itself apart, British interest in the doubles found more stable ground.
Arthur Fery and Joshua Paris battled past Anirudh Chandrasekar and Ivan Liutarevich 6-4 5-7 6-4, edging a tight three-setter to move into the next round. Neal Skupski, partnering American Christian Harrison as the fifth seeds, produced a clinical 6-0 7-6 (7-3) win over Arthur Reymond and Luca Sanchez to join them.
Not every British pair survived. David Stevenson and Marcus Willis pushed 11th seeds Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul hard but eventually bowed out 5-7 7-6 (7-2) 6-3.
Back in singles, though, the story is the same: a men’s draw ripped open, a home favourite stunned, and a Slam that suddenly belongs to the brave rather than the established.
For Fritz, the chance of a maiden major has gone, at least for now. For Zverev and the rest, the question is simple: who has the nerve to walk through the door that everyone else has left wide open?
